


crystal eyes

by elaaden (orphan_account)



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: BL3 Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Major Character Injury, Slow Burn, tw - jack, tw - jack mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-12 19:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21481312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/elaaden
Summary: NOTE: BORDERLANDS 3 SPOILER HEAVY!an au where angel didn't die at control core angel.
Relationships: Angel/Gaige (Borderlands)
Kudos: 10





	crystal eyes

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: BORDERLANDS 3 SPOILER HEAVY!
> 
> the first half of this story takes place during the events of where angels fear to tread in bl2. it later moves on to the events of bl3.
> 
> sort of an au i had where angel didn't die at control core angel, but tannis receives her powers. she later helps the crimson raiders.

"No, no, no!" Maya exclaimed in fear. She stared around the room they were in, the screens, the walls, the broken remnants of Hyperion robots. At Angel's body, Roland, the spot where Lilith once stood... Everyone knew that destroying Jack's catalyst was going to come with a cost, but none of them thought... it would be this big of a cost. They had to find him before he woke the Warrior. "Damn it! He took Lilith!"

"Maya, don't lose your head." Axton tried (and failed) to comfort the siren, walking over to her to stand beside her. "Right now, we need to focus on -"

"Taking care of Jack." Gaige cut him off, then let out a huff. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, we get it. Except now he has Lilith, and he just killed our Commander. You know, the guy that was supposed to be helping us. The guy we rescued not that long ago."

"I believe we have / more immediate problems / at the moment." Zer0 flashed a bright red "?" on their visor. All three of the Vault Hunters turned to look at what Zer0 was talking about -- _Angel_.

She was... moving. Alive. Not dead. The tattoos on her arm, however... they were gone. All four of them watched in confusion as she shifted on the cold floor. After a few moments, Gaige had enough of just standing around and pushed past Maya and Axton to kneel down on the ground beside her. "Angel? Are you okay?"

"Huh...?" Angel was quiet and she sounded like she was losing her voice. Gaige frowned at the confused look on her face. "Is it... is it over?"

"Yeah, and you're... pretty not dead." Axton remarked.

Gaige turned to give him a half annoyed half angry look, then turned back to Angel, who was now attempting to sit up. The mechanic reached behind her and aided her in sitting up, her hand pressed firmly against Angel's back. She wouldn't pry and ask about her siren tattoos like the others probably would have -- it was ultimately none of her business. All that mattered now was that she was alive, and she was the one person on this planet that knew more about Jack than anyone else. Judging by how much she tried to help the Vault Hunters before, Gaige figured she was a pretty reliable ally.

"What... happened to Lilith?" Angel asked no one in particular in a strained voice. She was very obviously in a lot of pain, Gaige thought. "I... told you not... to let her into my chambers."

"Yeah, well, we can't exactly control what Lilith does." Axton responded first. "Jack took her to charge the vault key."

Angel slowly attempted to stand on her feet. Gaige offered her hand, and started to help her stand up by grabbing hold of her arms firmly and lifting. Angel was surprisingly light, but still had a hard time standing on her own, so Gaige wrapped one of Angel's arms around her neck to provide support for her to be able to stand properly. 

"We should get back to Sanctuary." Maya suggested. "We need to figure out a plan to take down Jack and get Lilith back."

"What...ever happens... don't let Jack know that I'm alive." Angel took a deep breathe after speaking, slowly trying to regain her strength. 

"Wouldn't dream of it." Gaige assured her.

+++

Back at Sanctuary, the Vault Hunters took Gaige to Tannis to let her take care of her. Maya figured Tannis would be better equipped than Dr. Zed to take care of an eridium sick siren, and she was right to assume so. Jack had been feeding Angel eridium for so long to fuel her siren powers that she was addicted to it, and Tannis hypothesized that she was going to go through very painful and generally awful withdrawal symptoms. When Gaige left Tannis' office, Angel was shivering and sweating on a bunk near her desk. The mechanic figured it would be best to leave Angel and Tannis alone, so she went to find the others.

Gaige found Maya first -- she was standing near the fast travel station with Zer0, the both of them very calmly talking about something Gaige couldn't quite make out as she approached the two. Both of the Vault Hunters turned to look at Gaige when they noticed her approaching.

"How's Angel doing?" Maya asked her first.

"Not great." Gaige frowned. "I doubt she's going to be able to help us much with our Jack problem."

A bright red ":(" flashed on Zer0's visor, and they crossed their arms over their chest. "We need to kill Jack / before he wakes the Warrior. / Preferably, soon."

"Soon would be ideal, but we lack the manpower." Maya agreed with the assassin. "We also have no idea where Jack is, at the moment. Angel is the only person who might know, and she's currently sweating out her withdrawal." The siren sighed heavily, pressing the palm of her hand to her forehead.

"We'll figure something out, sooner or later." Gaige told Maya with a shrug. She sensed how much Maya was stressing over the loss of Lilith, considering it was pretty obvious how much time the two sirens spent together. When Maya wasn't hanging around Lilith, she was with Zer0 or meditating somewhere in Sanctuary.

"I feel like we would have a much better chance of figuring things out if we _had _information." Maya crossed her arms over her chest. "Which, we are severely lacking in the information department right now, unfortunately."

"Hey, someone's gotta know something, right?"

Someone _did_, in fact, know something - that someone being their hunter friend Mordecai. Mordecai was still suffering from the loss of his best friend, Bloodwing, but seemed to be more focused on finding Lilith, now. Gaige remembered how upset he was after their trip to the Wildlife Exploitation Reserve. Thankfully, he knew where to find out where Jack plans to wake the Warrior - they needed to break into the Hyperion Info Stockade. Easier said than done, but it was a solid plan rather than just sitting and moping while Jack makes progress, wherever he is.

Salvador, Axton and Zer0 were the ones who left Sanctuary to take care of business - as much as Gaige would love to go fight Hyperion loaderbots with Deathtrap just for the fun of it, and to let off a little steam, she wanted to stay behind and help Tannis and Maya look after Angel. She was starting to get a little better, not sweating as much and she wasn't constantly shivering like it was below zero. No one tried to press her about what happened to the tattoos on her arms, or why she no longer possessed her siren powers. Gaige just figured it was none of her business and that if Angel was willing to tell her, she would listen. Tannis, on the other hand, simply didn't bother because even she had no idea what happened there.

Gaige figured Angel needed a friend, and she would gladly be that friend.

"Hey."

Angel forced a tired smile up at Gaige when she appeared in front of her bunk. "Hello."

Gaige plopped down in the chair at the end of the bed. "Feeling any better?"

Angel grunted as she sat up in the bed to talk to Gaige, pushing the blankets off of her with a huff. "Only a little," answered Angel. "but I'm also a little happy that I'm going through this."

Gaige raised a brow in confusion. "Happy?"

Angel nodded affirmatively. "Yes. I'm... no longer trapped in that awful room. Hooked up to... whatever system Jack had me hooked up to." Angel explained. "I'm finally free. I guess I should be thankful for all of you - not only did you help me escape the prison of being Jack's catalyst, you're my friends." Gaige was a little surprised when she saw Angel smile - a real, genuine smile. The roboteer smiled back at her.

"Well... I'm glad we were able to help you." Gaige scooted her chair closer to the bed, reaching out so she could touch Angel's shoulder in a comforting way with her robotic arm. "How's freedom feel? Pretty great, huh?"

"It feels... wonderful." Angel admitted with a very wide smile on her face. "I won't be completely safe until Jack is dead, but... for the moment, I'm safe, free, and in the company of my friends."

Gaige smiled up at Angel again. "Sweet! You deserve to be safe." Gaige assured her. "And pretty soon, that fascist asshole that calls himself your dad will be gone."

"Fascist a..." Angel trailed off, obviously stopping herself for a moment from saying what it was that she was going to say. She then cleared her throat. "Fascist asshole. I don't think I could describe him better myself."

"Hell yeah!" Gaige held up her fist for a fist bump, and Angel obliged, the two of them now giggling in amusement at the gesture.

+++

It was a while before Angel was finally on her feet again. In the meantime, the others focused on finding Jack and taking him down, something everyone, especially Gaige, was passionate about achieving. After everything Jack put his daughter through in order to commit genocide on an entire planet? He deserved to be taken down several notches, and Gaige would be _more _than happy to be the one to do it. Wiping the smug look off his face would be one for the history books, and ruining his plan of killing off an entire planet was going to be the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae that was their plan.

Gaige spent several days modifying Deathtrap for the fight she knew was coming. Jack wasn't going down without a fight, and everyone knew it, so before they took their assault to the Eridium Blight, they all prepared for the challenge that was to come. The mechanic also made sure her guns were in tip-top shape. Can't be in the middle of a fire fight with Hyperion loaderbots and have your gun jam on you. 

Apparently, Claptrap was going to be helping with their plan a bit. They needed his help getting through the gate that guarded the vault. It took a few days for everyone to be completely ready, but Gaige was ready before the rest of them. She was _so _ready to end this asshole once and for all, as well as save the planet and save Lilith. Pandora had its problems, yeah, but wiping out the entire planet was not justified - the group of vault hunters were going to put a stop to it.

Axton and Gaige checked in with Scooter to get a few things for their set of wheels to travel to the gate, making sure it was geared up and ready to take on... whatever was thrown at them in the ride there. They were sure Jack was going to try and make sure they didn't make it to the gate, unless he was really that stupid to just _let _them get to the gate. They made sure there was enough firepower on the vehicles "to take out an army of loaderbots," as Axton put it, as well as enough protection. When the vehicles were modified to perfection (or as close as they would get with their limited supplies), they gathered everyone to head out to the Eridium Blight.

"Alright, everyone." Maya climbed up on top of the Outrunner she was driving with Zer0, glancing around the room at the group of vault hunters. "This is our last chance to take out Jack and save Lilith. Let's make sure we make it there and back in one piece, all right?"

"Deathtrap and I are hella ready for this, Maya." Gaige grinned up at the siren, tapping the control on her robotic arm that called upon her robotic friend.

"Make sure that robot doesn't fuck things up this time, Gaige." Axton turned to look at Gaige, who stuck her tongue out at the commando.

"When does it ever 'fuck things up?'"

"Well, there _was _the time it self-destructed unprompted -"

"That was _one _time!" Gaige groaned. "I fixed it up, okay? W-what about Zer0 and their hologram?"

Zer0 flashed a bright red "?" at the mechanic. "Bullshit." was all they said.

"Can we focus? Please?" Maya sighed heavily, then hopped down off the Outrunner with a grunt. "Take your anger at each other out on the megalomaniac asshole that we've spent all this time trying to track down. Put it to some good use."

"You got it." Salvador told her with a grin, walking around Gaige towards the technical he was riding in with Axton, Gaige and Krieg in the backseat. 

The ride there was somewhat calm. Gaige definitely didn't expect that - especially since the Pandoran version of "calm" was less than two explosions on the way there. It was a little weird if something _wasn't _blowing up, and Gaige was definitely used to it, at this point. She could tell when they were getting closer and closer to the Eridium Blight. The earth started to darken, the sky started to turn a dark grey and the clouds would band together to cast a creepy darkness over the lava and eridium covered earth.

Getting to the gate that guarded the entrance to the vault was no picnic - loaderbots were out the _ass_. It wasn't anything the vault hunters couldn't handle, but the constant sound of moonshot after moonshot of loaderbots and mortars was getting on Gaige's nerves just a tad. She was glad when they finally pulled up to the gate in one piece, Claptrap already there and waiting for them to arrive. 

Of course, there was heavy resistance with opening the gate. Wave after wave of Hyperion loaderboats appeared as reinforcements, and Claptrap was seemingly taking forever to open the gate. It was alright, though - he was trying his best, at least. He managed to get a few turrets online to help with the fight against the bots. The group of vault hunters were more than capable of getting rid of a few waves of reinforcements. When the battle was done, destroyed robots and fried circuitry lay on the ground around them, and the vault hunters waited somewhat impatiently for Claptrap to finally get the gate open. 

"AAAAAAAAAAND! OPEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNN!"

With a loud, metallic screech, the gate opened slowly and revealed the path towards the vault. 

"We did it, minions! Jack thought he could stop us with a door? Ha! I was _made_ to open doors!" Claptrap exclaimed triumphantly.

"Nice going, Clappy." Gaige told the robot with a grin. 

Claptrap followed behind the group of vault hunters as they walked towards the entrance to the vault, the entrance to the end of Jack and his plan to destroy Pandora. Just as they were about to continue on, they encountered a flight of stairs and Claptrap stopped in his tracks behind them.

Gaige kinda drowned out the sound of Claptrap going on about how he couldn't climb stairs and that they were going to have to go on without him. She was more than ready to take the fight to Jack and kill that asshole, as well as save Lilith from imprisonment. She thought about Angel as she walked towards the excavation entrance, about how her freedom depended on whether or not the vault hunters succeeded in taking him down. That was quite the motivation to get the job done - if it meant Angel would finally be free, and Pandora would be saved, she would more than happily complete the task.

As for the others... well, Gaige could only assume they were as amped as she was when it came down to killing a fascist asshole. 

The fight to the vault was a tough one. Mostly because of the overwhelming presence of both Hyperion personnel and Hyperion loaderbots, but because Gaige was eager to finally get to the vault and kind of wished all the baddies would just disintegrate and leave her alone for once. Of course, since the universe can be cruel, that wasn't the case, and her, Deathtrap and the other vault hunters were stuck fighting through this mess of an excavation site.

When Brick and Mordecai showed up, their numbers were a bit stronger and they wiped out the robots and engineers with ease, pushing through to the end of the excavation site. The group encountered several constructors and complex loaderbots on their way towards the end, making sure to leave every leaf turned on their way to the vault. It finally seemed like things were falling into place, and the end was near, so hey, Gaige's excitement was a little bit justified.

Zer0 and Salvador practically carried the team on their backs - they both were capable of pretty crazy things. Zer0, able to go invisible and deploy a hologram of themselves to distract the enemy while they picked them off from afar with a sniper rifle? Badass. Salvador, capable of dual-wielding two rocket launchers at once? _Badass_. Deathtrap? _Super badass!_

Maya's phaselocking ability with her siren powers was also incredibly useful - the siren was great at crowd control and aiding her teammates when it came down to it. She actually saved Gaige's life quite a few times, for which Gaige was eternally grateful. How could she still kick ass and take names while six feet under? Maya made sure that didn't happen, so she was alright in Gaige's book. 

When the vault hunters entered the vault, there was a tension in the air that was so thick you could cut through it with Zer0's blade. This was it. This was the end of the line, so to speak. They all either walk away from this having saved the entire planet from extinction, or Jack wins and wipes out an entire planet. The latter was _definitely _not going to happen, even if that meant Gaige had to sink her claws into the bastard herself. 

They all climbed onto the elevator at the end of the scaffolding they walked on, Maya pressing the button to lower them down to the ground below. Off in the distance, the giant arch that housed a vault sat, accompanied by Hyperion tech and statues of vault guardians. Gaige thought the vault guardians were something else. Apart from their appearance, they were the last sign that the Eridians existed once as a species. That was what drew Gaige to vault hunting, mostly - as well as the fact that she _had _to leave her home planet of Eden-5 due to the science fair incident... yeah, Gaige definitely did not want to think about that right now.

When the elevator came to a halt, the vault hunters all stepped off the metal lift onto the rocky ground, the lava around them making the temperature a little uncomfortable for Gaige. She was never really big on heat. As they approached the vault arch more, Gaige glanced around at the Hyperion tech and saw Lilith, chained and shackled to charge the vault key. Jack was standing off in the distance, and Gaige was the first one to jump off the ledge and down onto the same level as that asshole.

As the vault hunters approached the scene, Jack, seemingly sensing their presence, turned to face all of them and Gaige was filled with utter hatred and disgust at the sight of his face. She wanted to punch it. She was _going _to punch it - _hard_. Hard enough to break a bone, hopefully!

"Hey, you're right on time - Key's nearly ready!" Jack's voice was enough to make Gaige throw up. "But before I cleanse this planet for good, I am gonna avenge my daughter."

Gaige was a little amused at that statement. Boy, was he missing out on a lot. Apart from the fact that Angel wasn't actually dead, there was no way his plan was going to actually come to life - and the vault hunters were going to make sure of that.

Zer0 had the least amount of trouble taking on Jack. His cloaking device was a lot like their own, and besides - they were an assassin. They knew every trick in the book. Hell, they practically wrote the book on deception. Watching Zer0 on the battlefield was always amusing, and watching them beat the hell out of Jack with a digistructed sword? Even better.

Maya and Gaige set to work on trying to figure out how to free Lilith - it seemed like she was locked in place by the collar around her neck, the same one that Angel wore when they found her in the Control Core. A steady beam of purple light illuminated from the vault key and wrapped around Lilith, her tattoos glowing and pulsing as the key charged. 

"Any ideas?" Maya said loud enough over the chaos that was going on around them.

Gaige thought for a moment, until... aha! "Yeah, I got one!" Gaige pressed a button on the control on her arm, Deathtrap appearing before them as summoned. Gaige grabbed onto the robot and hoisted herself up, sitting on the robot's shoulder. It rose until Gaige and the robot were at Lilith's level. "Hey, Lilith, just gonna... attempt to get this collar off, if that's alright with you."

Despite her current situation, Lilith still forced out a weak chuckle. "Go for it."

Gaige reached out and touched the collar around Lilith's neck with her organic hand, immediately pulling it away and hissing in pain from the contact with... whatever force was surrounding Lilith at the moment. This was going to be a lot harder than it looked. Gaige spent what felt like an eternity pressing buttons on the collar to no avail, until she found a latch on the back of it. When she tried to snap the latch off, the force of the key sent her flying off Deathtrap's shoulders and to the ground with a loud grunt.

As a crystallisk sauntered by, Maya held up her hand in a fist, locking the creature in place. "These things... are really annoying, not going to lie." Maya reached out and offered her hand to Gaige, helping her get to her feet.

Deathtrap appeared beside Gaige. "There's a latch on the collar, maybe if -"

The two of them were interrupted when they heard a cry of pain and turned to see Jack on his knees in front of Zer0. The assassin looked a little intimidating in their current state - blood soaked suit, blood stained sword, and a bright red "STFU" displayed on their visor. They pressed the blade of their sword against Jack's neck, threatening to kill him at sword point, until the Jack on the ground disappeared. Even Zer0 went "WTF?"

Gaige's eyes glanced over at the _real _Jack, who collapsed forward beneath Lilith on the ground with a defeated grunt. "That it? Huh!?"

Above them, Lilith made a strained noise. "No! The key's charged!" She cried out.

Before anyone could react, Jack practically leaped forward and shoved the vault key into the slot in the ground. For a moment, nothing seemed to be happening, until the ground began to shake and Gaige held her arms out for balance. Behind them, the lava in the ground started to rise, and a gigantic, molten creature rose from the lava. Gaige could hardly believe what she was seeing - were they going to have to defeat that thing!?!

It looked like a dragon. It was giant, with hard, igneous skin and even from where she was standing, Gaige could feel the heat radiating off the thing. Beside them, Lilith landed on the ground with a loud grunt, a large, purple force field surrounding her and Jack around where the vault key was in place. "You're too late!" Jack exclaimed, sitting up on his knees to look up at the creature before them. "I win! The greatest alien power Pandora has ever seen, and it's _mine _to control!"

Gaige exchanged a look with Maya, noting both the fear and concern on her face in that moment. Hell.

"_Warrior!_" Jack's voice was loud and made Gaige want to throat punch him. This entire _situation _made her want to throat punch him. "Kill."

The creature before the vault hunters let out a loud, ear splitting roar that both terrified and excited them. Zer0 stared up at the creature from where they were standing with a bright red ">:)" on their visor. "Finally, a / worthy challenge. Let's kill this / thing, and then kill Jack."

Gaige could get on board with that plan.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Warrior was made out of lava and igneous rock and hopped all over the damn place like a frog, this fight would have been easy. Gaige commanded Deathtrap to take out the crystallisks while the vault hunters focused on the Warrior - small targets to keep it busy. Despite the fact that Gaige was fully confident that her robot could take on anything, she wouldn't risk losing it to a vault monster that _Jack _awakened.

It was a bullet sponge. No matter how many magazines from her pistol that she emptied into the thing, it wouldn't go down. Gaige huffed in irritation, wiping the sweat from her brow as she hopped up on top of one of the Eridian statues. Down below, Deathtrap was keeping busy by taking down volcanic rakks and crystallisks. Gaige turned her gaze back to the vault monster standing before her, and it was then that she noticed a patch of skin on its chest that was thinner than the rest of its skin. Underneath it was lava - so she figured if she shot at it...

The vault monster didn't seem to enjoy that. When Gaige took a shot at the vulnerable spot on its chest, it roared loudly and spit fire down onto the ground at the vault hunters. If it wasn't for their shields, they probably would have been toast. _Literally_.

"Aim for the spot on its chest!" Gaige yelled down to her fellow vault hunters below.

Maya stared at Gaige for a moment, then looked down the scope of her sniper rifle, taking a shot at the exact spot Gaige told them to aim for. The Warrior let out another ear splitting roar, this time sinking back down into the lava. For a moment, Gaige thought they'd killed the thing, until she turned around and the Warrior rose from the lava in a different position, this time swiping across the area with it's tail. A few Eridian statues fell from the force of it, the statue Gaige was standing on crumbling slowly. The roboteer tried to scramble down off the statue before it fell, but she wasn't so lucky - she went toppling down with the statue, landing on the ground with a loud grunt.

When she landed, her shield was depleted. Deathtrap quickly restored her shield back to its full capacity, though. Perks of having a robot as a best friend, huh?

Despite all the yelling from Jack because the vault hunters were actually taking down the Warrior pretty quickly now, they all kept a steady fire at the Warrior's vulnerable spot, dodging fire and debris left and right while they did so. Zer0 was the one to deliver the final blow - they quickly threw a spread of explosive blades at the monster's chest. They exploded on impact, and the Warrior's roar filled Gaige's ears, causing her to physically cringe in reaction. The vault monster fell down beneath the lava once more, reappearing near the vault arch. When it fell to the ground, the entire ground shook once more, causing Gaige to almost lose her balance.

"_No!_" Jack was the first one to say anything. "This can't be happening, _this can't be happening_!"

"Holy hell..." Lilith said from underneath the force field, grunting as she tried to sit upright. "I think you killed that thing, Zer0."

A bright red ":)" popped up on Zer0's visor. "Of course."

"Wouldn't hurt to make sure. Hit that button on the moonshot console over there."

Gaige moved before anyone else could, slamming her metal fist down on the green button to finally be rid of the vault monster. When the creature disappeared, the force field around the vault key disappeared, and both Lilith and Jack rose to their feet. Maya was at Lilith's side in an instant, quietly asking her friend how she was feeling and if she was alright. Then Gaige turned to look at Jack.

"No, no, no, I can't die like this... not when I'm so close, and not at the hands of filthy bandits!" Gaige rolled her eyes at him. "I could've saved this planet! I could have _actually _restored order! I wasn't supposed to die at the hands of a bunch of child-killing _psychopaths_! You're savages! You're maniacs! You are bandits _and I am the goddamn hero_!"

Gaige walked over to Jack, reaching up to grip him by the shirt, tightening her robotic fist around the Hyperion yellow fabric. She gave him such a sour look that she could have sworn he flinched at her. "Listen close, asshole." The roboteer seethed. "_You're not a hero_. You're a jackass with a superiority complex and now we have put you in your place." She didn't hesitate when she let go of his shirt to punch him in the face with her robotic arm - the metal collided with his face and the force of it sent him tumbling backwards onto the ground with blood starting to pool. 

"Oh, and guess what? Angel's alive, douchebag." Gaige crossed her arms over her chest, then turned towards her assassin friend. "Zer0, I'll let you do the honors, buddy. Knock yourself out!"

A "<3" appeared on Zer0's visor in response. "With pleasure."

And with that was the end of Handsome Jack, and the beginning of both Angel and Pandora's freedom.


End file.
